Not to get all candleinthewind on you, but my god, Marilyn was lovely even when briefly looking ridiculous, even moreso as she was nearing her final days. The spaniel bit is achingly beautiful, especially her laugh.

How can one not be distracted by it?

Having Karl Rove on the same thread is a bit like having the principal walk by your locker.

But I do understand what Karl Rove was trying to say. Trying. Ridiculously. The core of the statement makes sense. The entire surface of it is absurdly distracting

Me too, without the "trying" part. Obama is a snob. Out of touch with the regular folks, judgemental, condescending, arrogant and feels that he is above reproach or scrutiny.

Obama was raised in a privileged environment. His Grandmother who raised him was a female bank Vice President in the 70's. Very unusual and a position of prestige. His mother a highly educated woman. His Grandfather a business owner. He went to a privileged and exclusive private high school. He went to privileged and exclusive college. Obama has led a privileged and exclusive life and to try to pretend otherwise is just plain lying.

He IS the snob leaning against the country club wall making snide comments about the lesser beings that he is force to lower himself to hob nob with in order to get what he wants. Everyone has seen his ilk. Do we want to be "ruled" by such?

He went to a privileged and exclusive private high school. He went to privileged and exclusive college. Obama has led a privileged and exclusive life and to try to pretend otherwise is just plain lying.

dbp, when has Obama? When has he denied going to private schools, or an exclusive college? So he's a snob. W's a snob, too. We're already "ruled by such people" as DBQ put it. And for all people, Karl Rove, to point it out to a bunch of other country club snobs -- well, it's amusing.

I see Rove's problem. How to communicate that there is something untrustworthy about Obama without having his own motives sound untrustworthy. Rove's comparison is not much of a fit, but it certainly cannot be stereotyped as racist....Herewith my own labored comparison: Cary Grant famously said that he was not Cary Grant. The Cary Grant that we see on the screen: elegant, well tailored, poised, witty was a mask that Archie Leach (Cary Grant's birth name) wore. Archie Leach was a Cockney, born poor and abandoned by his mother. He grew up confused and scared. The Cary Grant persona was as much armor as mask and a great creation. Cary Grant was who Gatsby aspired to be....Part of the charm of Cary Grant was his accent. It was not so plummy as Ronald Colman's nor so harsh as, say, Michael Caine's. The accent was his own creation. It was not like a Cockney putting on airs; it was more like a well-bred Brit who had been toughened up by harsh surroundings....Obama has something of the ambivalences of Cary Grant. The cadences and baritone of his voice are black but the accent and vocabulary he uses are white. It is an arresting mixture. Like Cary Grant, Obama is always meticulously tailored and his smallest gestures are graceful and pleasant to watch....Being compared to Cary Grant is not generally regarded as an insult. So what's the catch? My problem with Obama is that I can sometimes catch glimpses of the Archie Leach beneath the surface. Consider his friendship with the Rev Wright: What part of Obama responded to Wright's harsh rhetoric? Obama presents the persona of someone who has transcended racial prejudices the way Cary Grant transcended class differences. I'm not so sure. Either his friendship with Wright was a fraud or his elevated persona is a fraud....Cary Grant was able to hold it together on the screen, but his personal life was tormented with all kinds of demons and inconsistencies. Obama plays the role of presidental candidate with style and grace, but I question if he can control forever the different pulls and pushes of his identity.

He went to a privileged and exclusive private high school. He went to privileged and exclusive college. Obama has led a privileged and exclusive life and to try to pretend otherwise is just plain lying.

"Did this bother you about W, too?"

No. Because there was no pretense about it. Everyone knew that the Bush family is wealthy and that GW had a privileged life without struggling. I already said most of our politicians come from less than humble backgrounds which is already bothersome enough as it is. It is the pretending part that bothers me.

The unfortunate stereotype of "black" people is that they ALL have come from disadvantaged roots, a slavery background that is supposed to generate white guilt (of which I feel none since my ancestors were not participants living in another country or were fighting on the side to eliminate slavery, Quakers) and that Obama's personal rise above all of this is some miracle. While this economic struggle and rise is true of many....it is not true of Barak. He started at the top. To assume a history and a past that is not part of his life is false.

Obama is Cary Grant pretending to be Archie Leach.

Note: I'm not denying that there exists prejudice against even elite and wealthy people of color. I'm contending that Barack comes from a strata of society that is exclusive and elitist and doesn't include the majority of American citizens of any and all colors.

Trevor, the guy walked right up to Bush and said:"Mr. President, I hope you only serve one term. I'm very disappointed in your work so far."

I don't think Bush saying "who cares what you think" is out of line. I think it's funny. Sorry, but I don't tend to take self-important people like that writer seriously.

But I'll give him props for putting a convenient spin on it: "Bush doesn't care what the little people think!" A more accurate interpretation is that people in general don't tend to put much stock in what some random, rude jerk thinks, and they shouldn't.

Maybe not evidence of class snobbery, but certainly massive disdain for an individual's opinion.

Or how about this one? Please don't kill me.

But again, that's not exactly snobbery so much as rank cruelty.

Yes, I agree: Bush has some flaws, but snobbery isn't much in evidence.

As for the "who cares what you think" link. Eh, I suppose Bush could have said, "If I wanted your opinion, I would have asked for it"But in all fairness, most people would respond more like, "Go f yourself"

As for the born-again death row inmate: He didn't ridicule her to her face--that would have been cruel. What he did could best be discribed as juvenile.

I don't know what they were looking for exactly for the 15 second welcome home doggie spot, but any random 15 seconds of that clip work for me.

Commanding the dog to speakspeakspeakSPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAK is punishment for a dog, and yet the dear thing stayed dear. Their attention spans for that sort of thing is measured in minutes.

Chip, the handler, says, doggie play periods are required in order to keep it fun and even that is limited.

I loved that clip. It's the best thing about Monroe I've ever seen. Now I love her even more than before. You can tell she and the dog really enjoyed that day. Even with that dumbass handler off camera barking commands.

Rove. I get what he's trying to do. The reaction to it, very thin-skinned, considering the vitriol they generate themselves by way of natural communication. I don't see him as a principal walking by the lockers, although that is funny! I see him more as chubby friendly balding counselor. But then, I always thought of Rumsfeld as Uncle Rummy, and Bush as a great fishing partner.

So Obama is a pissy queen a la Addison DeWitt? Reginald Gardiner, or John Howard in The Philadelphia Story are closer to the Rovian character, but Obama's definitely the guy who gets the girl in my book.

FLS spewed: He also went to Catholic school for three years when he was little. Aren't you afraid that early indoctrination puts him too close to the mackerel-snappers?

Being a "mackerel-snapper" myself, that isn't a issue that bothers me.

I'm more concerned with his inability to understand or connect with the people that he presumes he will be "ruling". I also am more bothered by his chameleon aspect. Act one way in front of your peers (the San Francisco muckity mucks), put on the shuck and jive accent when talking to the members of the local black baptist church, attempt to talk veggies (arugula) to the rubes in Iowa. Which one is the real Barack?

when has Obama? When has he denied going to private schools, or an exclusive college? So he's a snob. W's a snob, too. We're already "ruled by such people" as DBQ put it. And for all people, Karl Rove, to point it out to a bunch of other country club snobs -- well, it's amusing.

I'd find it more amusing if a good portion of one set of snobs weren't constantly advocating class warfare.

There's the difference. Not that Reps aren't snobs (I was an adult before I met a Rep who wasn't rich), but that Reps aren't snobs telling you that the other snobs need to be punished.

Dems want to "tax the rich"; it's their mantra. Some will even espouse theories like "the Man is keeping you down". They seldom admit during these moments that they are rich and they are The Man.

The Reps will try to sell you "be nice to the rich and it will pay off", often just as laughably wrong.

And of course, both sides silently accept the privileges of office, of which there always seem to be some new ones coming to light. (Cheap home loans anyone?)

My problem with Obama is that I can sometimes catch glimpses of the Archie Leach beneath the surface. Consider his friendship with the Rev Wright: What part of Obama responded to Wright's harsh rhetoric?

Actually, that's where wheels come off the comparison of Obama to Cary Grant. With Cary Grant - Archie Leach there was no racial component. But with Obama you have a guy who looks black but who was raised by whites in a relatively affluent white setting. When he came of age he didn't know who he was. He's been on a journey ever since to figure that out.

Actually, if the Obama->Archie comparison worked, that would be marvellous.

Archie Leach aspired to be Cary Grant. It was a persona created to raise himself from who he was to who he wanted to be.

Our politicians seem to be convinced already that they're All That (with a side of fries). The sort of humility it takes to say, "No, this is who I want to be" would be refreshing from any leader. (Only problem is, I don't see how we would know that.)

But with Obama you have a guy who looks black but who was raised by whites in a relatively affluent white setting. When he came of age he didn't know who he was. He's been on a journey ever since to figure that out.

This is undoubtedly true.

I just wish he would have figured it out before he decided to drag us all, as a nation, on his personal discovery mission to find himself.

In 1983, Karla Faye Tucker and her biker boyfriend went to a man's house to rob him. He discovered them, whereupon Tucker's boyfriend started beating him to death with a hammer. The victim's girlfriend ran and hid. Karla Tucker tracked her down and hacked her to death with a pickaxe. She was later recorded bragging that she'd had multiple orgasms during the killings.

This is the woman who had the nerve to say "Please don't kill me".

I'm inclined to think a person would have to be an elitist snob to NOT express derision at that.